#Marketwire is your quick summary of notable market movements in the technology industry. The organisations covered in this segment include RBI, One97 Communications, Line Corp, Whatsapp, Flipkart, Snapdeal, AIPC, TruckMandi, Appie and GoZoomo

Unified Payments Interface Goes Live with 21 Banks

Mobile payment solution announced by RBI in April ‘Unified Payments Interface (UPI)’ went live on Thursday, with 21 banks onboard. UPI will allow consumers to make payments, transfer money, pay bills etc. directly from their bank accounts, using a single app on their smartphone.

Some of the banks for which UPI app would be available on Google PlayStore include Andhra Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, South Indian Bank, YES Bank among others. Read More

Odisha Startup Policy 2016 Aims to Create 1000 Startups by 2020

Odisha investors’ meet led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik concluded on Friday in Bangalore, with the launch of Odisha Startup Policy 2016.The policy aims at creation of 1000 startups by the year 2020, and supporting the startups through a Rs 25 crore Startup Capital Infrastructure Fund and assistance at different stages of growth. Read More

Mobile wallet Paytm’s parent firm One97 communications has spun off its Payments bank and eCommerce arms into two separate firms under the names Paytm Payments Bank and Paytm E-commerce Services respectively. Hiving off the payments bank is due to regulatory requirements. Whereas the eCommerce arm has been separated to run independently and raise investment as a stand alone business.

One97 Founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma says “Payments and eCommerce have different growth cycles and we believe eCommerce business can be a sizeable opportunity going forward.”. With this move, Paytm eCommerce is likely to become a potential option for Alibaba to completely acquire to launch its own eCommerce in India. Read More

Line Scouts for Startups It Can Acquire

Japan-based Line Corp is looking to acquire startups in content and technology space to integrate them in its messaging app Line. It has formed teams to discover potential companies across the globe. It is seeking startups in the areas of artificial intelligence, gaming, augmented article etc. Read More

Whatsapp to Integrate Business Services in the App

Facebook-owned Whatsapp has announced that it will onboard businesses onto its platform by end of 2016. Through an integration with Whatsapp, the partner firms would be allowed to send notifications to the users. This includes messages from utility services like order tracking, transaction, and appointment information, delivery and shipping notifications, and also promotional messages. Read More

Flipkart Disburses Rs 125 Cr Loans to Over 800 Merchants

Under its ‘Growth Capital Programme’, which was launched in July 2015, Flipkart has disbursed a total of Rs 125 crore in loan to over 800 merchants. The company aims at garnering more interest and support from sellers through capital support to enable them to grow their respective businesses. The firm has over 90,000 merchants on its platform, and aims at disbursing another Rs 200 crore during the festive season in October-November. Read More

Snapdeal Launches Free Next Day Delivery With Snapdeal Gold

Following the lines of Amazon India Prime and Flipkart Assured, Snapdeal has launched its own version of quick delivery of certain products under Snapdeal Gold. However this service is free of cost and offers 1 day delivery in select cities. Read More

31 Firms Banned from Recruiting at IIT Placements

In light of revoked job offers and deferred joining dates, All India Placement Committee(AIPC) has listed names of 31 firms which would not be allowed to hold placements at IITs. Some of these include Internet companies Grofers, Portea Medical, Peppertap, Cashcare Technologies and MeraHunar among others. Read More

Startups Which Recently Shut Their Operations

Truck aggregator TruckMandi

Delhi-based truck aggregation startup TruckMandi has suspended its operations. It was founded in October 2014 by Ankit Singh (CEO, Ex-Snapdeal), Anurag Jain (COO, ex-Snapdeal) and Nishant Jaden (Ex-TCS). It had raised close to $2 million in July 2015 when it had over 800 clients. Read More

O2O Deal Discovery Platform Appie

Hyperlocal deal discovery platform Appie has shut down its operations owing to a severe fund crunch. In May 2016, the company had claimed in the media that it had raised $1 million in investment. It appears that it was either a PR stunt or the investors backed out. Disgruntled unpaid employees are complaining that the founder Kartik Sanghavi has been absconding. Read More

Used Car Marketplace GoZoomo

Bangalore-based online used car marketplace has closed down citing scalability concerns around the business model. The firm has laid off most of its team with severance pay, and has returned the remaining external investment it had raised back to its investors. GoZoomo was founded in July 2014 by Arnav Kumar, Himangshu Hazarika and Aniket Behera. It had raised a total of $6 million in investment from SAIF Partners in two separate rounds. Read More